This is the place where you will walk out with some records purged from the personal collection of some top-tier post punker, or recently unearthed dead stock of countless soul fusion lost classics. Everything here is a score due to its location in close proximity of the aging art elite – this is their dumping ground. For jazz, soul and funk, the racks are your bible. For everything left of center, this is where you mine the real finds. Thumbing through their singles boxes, you can relate to the prospector striking gold in the bed of a ripe but unsifted river.

For more on Academy Records, click here to read our feature on ‘NYC’s Best Record Stores’ on GrandLifeHotels.com.